A couple of months after smashing the Spa-Francorchamps lap record, Porsche and its 919 Hybrid Evo tackled the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. Timo Bernhard was behind the wheel and he managed to knock nearly a minute off Stefan Bellof’s pole position time of 6m11.13s for the 1983 Nurburgring 1000km.
Stefan Bellof is an idol for two-time Le Mans 24 Hours Time Bernhard. So beating Bellof’s record surely meant a lot for the German driver. He had multiple runs around the Nordschleife and his best time was 5:19.546, comfortably faster than Stefan’s time. Porsche have now unofficially smashed the lap record and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
The uprated version of Porsche’s 2017 LMP1 challenger has more power, both from its conventional V4 turbo engine and its energy retrieval systems, giving it a peak output of 1160bhp. It also has 50 percent more downforce and active aerodynamics, including Formula 1-style Drag Reduction System incorporated into its rear wing.
Bellof’s pole time around the ‘Ring in a Rothmans Porsche 956 Group C car and his subsequent all-time race record of 6m16.85s were never beaten in competition conditions.